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Show Notes:

How do you create healthy and effective financial practices for your small business?

That's the question we're tackling today.

Exploring that question for myself has been complicated.

I've been tracking every penny in my personal finances since 1997.

I've always tracked my income and expenses in my businesses.

But all that tracking didn't mean I was doing well with my money. My bookkeeping practices had a stressful and tight energy to them. Several years ago, my wife found a red plastic button that looked like it was from an old fashioned computer, with the word "panic" on it. She suggested I glue it to my desk and press it when I was doing my bookkeeping.

Although that was (sort of) funny, it kind of freaked me out. I didn't realize how stressed out I seemed when I was dealing with money. I just thought that was how that worked.

Years later, I went through Bari Tessler's program The Art of Money, and also read her book. Her work helped me start to slow down my nervous system when relating to my money.

Then I started using the Profit First system created by Mike Michalowicz. Two times a month, I walk through a process to distribute my income into different bank accounts within my business.

That process gives me a clear look at what's happening in my finances and evens out the ups and downs.

Then I hired a fee only financial advisor to help me create a long term plan.

And all of these things have helped me change the feeling I'm bringing to my money practices. I still feel myself going into reactive mode sometimes, and I still get that gripped, stressed feeling sometimes. It's just that now I've got some better thoughts and practices to lean into.

I want to introduce you to someone who has helped lots of my clients find peace and empowerment with their money practices. Let me introduce Andi Smiles, a financial consultant and educator for small business owners.

She was willing to share her own financial journey with us.

Five years ago, she was a self-described "hot mess" when it came to her own money. It wasn't that she needed more information. She knew what to do. She was a money expert helping small business owners, but her money wounds were holding her back from creating her own peaceful relationship with money.

In this conversation, Andi shares the daily money practices she follows now. Then she takes us back to the journey she went through to heal those money wounds and create a more profitable business.